Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will battle Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 33 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 at Bangalore on Saturday. Both teams are in good form, with RCB having strung together back-to-back wins followed by a wash-out, and KKR having beaten Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their previous encounter. Gautam Gambhir reaches 3,000 runs in Indian Premier League
After a topsy-turvy start to IPL 2015 which saw them languish at the bottom of the table, RCB came back well to find themselves in the top four of the points table along with CSK, KKR, and Rajasthan Royals (RR). Their bowling has looked far superior thanks to Mitchell Starc, while their batting has started to click as well. IPL 2015 Highest wicket-taker: List of best bowlers in IPL 8
In their last game despite Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli falling early, AB de Villiers and the young Sarfaraz Khan propelled RCB to a 200-run total. Though the game was ultimately washed out, RCB will take a lot of confidence in the fact that their middle order came good despite a top-order failure. Sarfaraz Khan, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda show the future of Indian cricket is in good hands
RCB’s biggest find has been Sarfaraz. The 17-year-old is now the youngest IPL player in history. With his superb innings against RR, he has emulated his ICC Under-19 World Cup 2014 teammates Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Hooda in terms of making a successful start to their IPL careers. Sarfaraz Khan becomes youngest cricketer to play in IPL history
On the other hand, yet another promising player from that same batch — Kuldeep Yadav — continues to sit on the sidelines for KKR. With Brad Hogg performing well in his first few games, it seems unlikely that KKR will play another chinaman in Kuldeep.
KKR have suffered the occasional loss but have largely been good with both bat and ball. Robin Uthappa has finally got going after threatening to do so for some time now, while Gautam Gambhir has also looked good. Manish Pandey is yet to play a defining innings, but he is a big-match player and has got a few starts. Suryakumar Yadav and Yusuf Pathan have failed to build on their starts, but in Ryan ten Doeschate and Andre Russell, KKR have two solid lower-middle order batsmen capable of playing big shots.
On the bowling front, Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav have both looked good with the new ball. Pat Cummins has had a couple of decent outings, but is unlikely to keep Morkel out for long. Hogg has been excellent as usual, and has ensured that the absence of Sunil Narine has not been felt. Piyush Chawla has quietly gone about his job as well.
Based on current form, both teams are evenly matched. KKR have been the more consistent side and definitely bat much deeper, but RCB are a tough team to beat on their day. The Gayle-Hogg contest — assuming they face off — could play a role in the outcome of the match. Overall, another entertaining game between two powerful sides can be expected.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Darren Sammy, Mitchell Starc, Dinesh Karthik, Subramanium Badrinath, Sean Abbott, Adam Milne, Nic Maddinson, Ashok Dinda, Manvinder Bisla, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Sarfaraz Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Shishir Bhavane, Iqbal Abdullah, David Wiese, Rilee Rossouw, Abu Nechim, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Warrier, Yogesh Takawale, Jalaj Saxena.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Kuldeep Yadav, Morne Morkel, Azhar Mahmood, Johan Botha, KC Cariappa, Piyush Chawla, Pat Cummins, Aditya Garhwal, Brad Hogg, Sheldon Jackson, Sumit Narwal, Veer Pratap Singh, Vaibhav Rawal, Suryakumar Yadav.
Time: 16:00 local time
(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek and Cricket fanatic. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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